Big Four Plus Jack Sock Reach Second Week - Mondays with Bob Greene

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STARS

(French Open first week)

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni beat third-seeded Simona Halep 7-5 6-1

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-3 6-2 6-7 (5) 6-3

Julia Goerges beat fifth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 7-6 (4)

Kristina Mladenovic beat sixth-seeded Eugenie Bouchard 6-4 6-4

Flavia Pennetta beat eighth-seeded Carla Suárez Navarro 6-3 6-4

Ana Ivanovic beat ninth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 3-6 6-1

Jack Sock beat 10^th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7) 6-2 6-3

Sara Errani beat 10^th-seeded Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-3

SAYING

“I felt good, defended my points, so I’m excited about that. That’s always exciting.” – Serena Williams, joking after matching her performance at Roland Garros last year when she lost in the second round.

“Honestly I don’t know what to say. It’s been kind of the same as how I have been feeling recently on the court. Just not like myself. So I just feel like it’s been a while that this has been happening, and it’s unfortunate. But I’m sure one day it will stop.” – Eugenie Bouchard, following her first-round upset loss to Kristina Mladenovic.

“You have several choices in a storm. You can get depressed, attach a weight to your leg and jump off a bridge. Or, if you have character, and I think my player has lots of character, you bounce back.” – Sam Sumyk, Eugenie Bouchard’s coach.

“When you play Ernests … he starts talking to the umpire, to the public, that’s a way for him, his way to stay focused and stay in his match. OK, he broke a racquet, but it’s difficult, you know. I thought he was going to serve and then he starts talking to the birds, to the umpire, or who knows.” – Nicolas Mahut, after his second-round win over Ernests Gulbis.

“If there is a problem in the crowd, if there is a donkey walking across the court, I don’t care. I want to play my match.” – Benoit Paire, following his second-round win over Fabio Fognini.

“Incredible. She’s just a great champion and I respect her so much.” – Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, after upsetting third-seeded Simona Halep for the second time in the last three Grand Slam tournaments.

“She played well. I couldn’t play my best today. But, you know, she started to hit the ball very strong at the beginning of the match. So she was better than me today.” – Simone Halep.

“When you arrive at any tournament, you hope you will have a chance to work your way into the event, but I didn’t have that opportunity. She just played better than me today.” – Venus Williams, after a first-round loss to Sloane Stephens.

“I need to get a lot better.” – American teenager Frances Tiafoe after losing his French Open first-round match 6-2 6-1 6-4 to Slovakia’s Martin Klizan.

SIMONA STOPPED

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni is proving to be a thorn in Simona Halep’s attempt to win her first Grand Slam tournament title. The veteran Croat shocked the French Open’s third seed in the second round, 7-5 6-1. It wasn’t the first time. Lucic-Baroni also upset Halep in the third round of last year’s US Open. Playing on Court Suzanne Lenglen, Halep never found her stride, hitting only five winners against her 33-year-old opponent. Instead of playing her normal game mixing up the pace, direction and spins, Halep was drawn into a hitting contest by Lucic-Baroni. “I just wanted to hit too strong maybe, and to change the game is not good,” Halep said. “I have to play like what I feel on court and to create the game. So I started to hit the ball too strong, and that is not my style. I don’t feel it, and I don’t handle it.” Lucic-Baroni, on the other hand, stayed true to her poised and aggressive style. “I think she was trying a couple of different things and I was just trying to stay aggressive and play smart and serve smart,” the winner said. “She moves the ball around really well. She’s an amazing athlete and super tough opponent. I was glad I was able to stay aggressive but not make too many unforced errors. That was the key for me.”

SOCK SURPRISE

Jack Sock is proving that Americans can win on clay. The 22-year-old knocked 10^th-seeded Grigor Dimitrov out of Roland Garros 7-6 (7) 6-2 6-3 for his 14^th clay-court win. “Today was a great match for me,” Sock said after the first-round win. “Things that I look to do well when I’m playing my matches I thought I did very well today – serving, forehand. Obviously most people know the things I look for the most. I thought I executed them very well.” With the win over Dimitrov, Sock became the first American to beat a Top 10 seed at Roland Garros since 2000 when Jan-Michael Gambill upset eighth-seeded Nicolas Kiefer. In April, Sock won his first ATP World Tour singles crown, taking the US Men’s Clay Court Championship. “I feel like if I play some of my best tennis I have a chance against anybody,” Sock said. “(Dimitrov and I) played in Stockholm last year and I had a break point chance. … He was able to take it at the end. Obviously that gave me some confidence going into today knowing I already played a close match with him. And then to play on clay, which I think suits me a little more.”

SUSPENDED

A 21-year-old player from Ukraine, Kateryna Kozlova, has been suspended for six months for violating the anti-doping rule. In announcing the suspension, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said Kozlova failed a urine test at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February. The sample was found to contain dimethylbutylamine, a prohibited substance. Kozlova said she ingested the drug in a supplement given her by a doctor. The ITF accepted her explanation and cut her suspension to six months, which will end in August. She also forfeits all ranking points and prize money earned since February 16, 2015.

SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT

Spain’s David Ferrer has joined his countryman Rafael Nadal as the only two active players who have won 300 clay-court matches in their careers. Ferrer recorded his 300^th victory when he beat Lukas Lacko 6-1 6-3 6-1 in a first-round Roland Garros match. “I began the season playing really well, winning a lot of matches, and I am only focusing in the moment,” the 33-year-old said. “I don’t know when I will finish my career. The most important thing is my fitness. I don’t have important injuries. I am looking forward.”

SILENCE, S’IL VOUS PLAIT

Fans at Roland Garros roared their disappointment when defending champion Maria Sharapova refused to do an on-court TV interview following her first-round victory over Kaia Kanepi. “I totally understand that everyone usually does the interviews and answers a few questions,” Sharapova said. “It’s absolutely normal. I’m not making any excuses but I’ve got to do what I have to do.” The Russian said she had been suffering from a cold and didn’t give the interview because her voice was not strong enough.

SLOANE TRIUMPHANT

Sloane Stephens has a pretty good Grand Slam tournament record against the winningest sisters in tennis history, Venus and Serena Williams. The 22-year-old Stephens eliminated Venus 7-6 (5) 6-1 in a first-round battle on the red clay at Roland Garros. Although 12 years younger than the elder Williams sister, Stephens went into Paris ranked 36^th in the world while Venus was ranked 18^th and seeded 15^th. The loser never showed the game that took her to seven Grand Slam tournament titles. But at break point in the second game of the second set, a serve by Williams startled a pigeon, which in turn startled Stephens. The eventual winner shrieked, and instead of Williams being credited with an ace, the point was replayed. This time, Stephens closed out the break. At the Australian Open two years ago, Stephens shocked Serena Williams in the fourth round. By beating Venus, Stephens becomes only the second woman to defeat both Williams sisters in Grand Slam tournaments. The other was Lindsay Davenport.

SAG CONTINUES

Eugenie Bouchard’s woes in 2015 continued at Roland Garros. The sixth-seeded Canadian was upset in the first round by Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4 6-4. Bouchard has now lost seven or her last eight matches. Last year was just the opposite for the young star. She was a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2014 before reaching the title match at Wimbledon, where she lost to Petra Kvitova. Bouchard put up a strong resistance in the first set, but lost the first five game of the second before Mladenovic was finally able to close out the win.

SKIPPING COSTLY

It was a costly non-appearance for Venus Williams when she lost her first-round match at Roland Garros. The veteran was fined USD $3,000 by tournament organizers for skipping a post-match news conference after she lost to fellow American Sloane Stephens 7-6 (5) 6-1. Instead, Williams issued a short statement to the media. It was the fifth time in her last 13 Grand Slam tournaments that Williams was eliminated in the first round.

SEEKING POST

David Haggerty, a former chairman of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), wants to be president of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Currently serving as an ITF vice president, Haggerty hopes to succeed Italy’s Francesco Ricci Bitti, who is stepping down in September after completing his fourth term as ITF president. “My goal is to strengthen the ITF’s role as the world governing body for tennis and to increase revenue and communications throughout the tennis family so that we can ensure a healthy and viable future for our sport,” Haggerty said in a statement. Other candidates for the ITF post are Anil Khanna of India, Juan Margets Lobato of Spain and Rene Stammbach of Switzerland.

SENIOR CITIZENS

At 34 years of age, Venus Williams was the oldest player in the French Open women’s singles draw. But she was far from being the oldest woman to appear in this year’s event. Kimiko Date-Krumm holds that distinction. The native of Japan is 44 and began playing in the year’s second Grand Slam tournament in 1989. Being the oldest isn’t anything new to the right-hander, who was ranked as high as fourth in the world in 1995. In 2009, she became the oldest player to win a WTA tournament since Billie Jean King when she captured the title in Seoul, Korea, the week she turned 39. She became the oldest player to win a Roland Garros match in 2010, the same year she became the oldest player to defeat a Top 10 player (Sam Stosur). At the age of 42 years, eight months, in 2013 she became the oldest player to reach the third round at Wimbledon. Date-Krumm and her partner, 34-year-old Francesca Schiavone, were eliminated in the second round of the women’s doubles at this year’s French Open.

At least three players in their 40s were in this year’s men’s doubles at Roland Garros. Daniel Nestor of Canada is 43, India’s Leander Paes 42, while Mahesh Bhupathi of India turns 41 this week.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCER

When two Americans – Madison Keys and Varvara Lepchenko – met in a first-round at Roland Garros, they had a pretty high-ranked announcer calling the match on Tennis Channel Plus. Although Katrina Adams has worked for Tennis Channel as an announcer for years, it was the first time she took to the microphone while serving as president of the United States Tennis Association (USTA), a two-year position she assumed on January 1. Adams worked as an announcer on several other matches at Roland Garros.

SAD NEWS

Doris Hart, the first player in tennis history to win a career Grand Slam in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, is dead at the age of 89. The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced the 1950s star died at her home in Coral Gables, Florida, USA. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1969. Hart won six Grand Slam tournament singles titles: the Australian in 1949, the French championships in 1950 and 1952; the US title in 1954 and 1955, and the 1951 Wimbledon title. Because of rain delays, Hart won the women’s singles and doubles and the mixed doubles titles all on the same day in 1951, dropping only one set in the effort. She also won all three trophies in France in 1952 and the US in 1954. Hart also lost in 12 Grand Slam tournament singles finals between 1946 and 1953.

SURFING

Paris: www.rolandgarros.com/en_FR/index.html

Prostejov: http://czech-open.cz/

Marseille: http://openfeminindemarseille.com/

Caltanissetta: www.atpcaltanissetta.com/

Stuttgart: www.mercedescup.de/

‘s-Hertogenbosch: www.topshelfopen.nl/en/

Nottingham: www.lta.org.uk/major-events/aegon-open-nottingham/

TOURNAMENTS THIS WEEK

(All money in USD)

MEN

$11,552,000 Roland Garros, Paris, France, clay (second week)